This invention relates to trenching plow blades, and particularly to a replaceable leading edge for such a blade.
A conventional trenching blade 1 can be seen in accompanying FIG. 2. It consists of a steel plate 2, typically either two or three inches thick, produced in the form of a blade having a generally vertical leading edge 3 and a toe portion 4 projecting forwardly therefrom. The lower half or so of the blade, depending on the desired trench depth, is forced forwardly through the ground, i.e. leading edge first, in a substantially vertical orientation, as shown.
Since it is the leading edge and toe which incur most of the wear when the blade is forced through the ground, it is obviously advantageous to provide a replaceable leading edge and toe, so that these can be treated as wear parts and replaced as required, rather than having to replace the entire blade when excessive wear has taken place. However, on the market at present there is no entirely satisfactory blade with such replaceable components, nor any entirely satisfactory kit for equipping existing blades with these replaceable wear parts. Existing arrangements require either a special blade, i.e. they cannot be retrofitted to conventional blades, or they require complex modifications to the blades for installation.
There is thus a need for a blade with conveniently replaceable components, and for a corresponding kit which can be readily adapted to conventional blades to provide for such replacement of components.